16.4.12

CRUCIBLE DRAW MADE TODAY

The draw for the Betfred.com World Championship will be made at 1.30pm.

It is live on Talksport radio. It's surprising that the BBC are not covering it given that they are host broadcaster for the tournament but it's a coup for Talksport. Judd Trump and Barry Hearn will be in the studio for reactions.

Great to see Stephen Hendry at the Crucible for the 27th consecutive year. Also good to see Jamie Jones beginning to make his mark.

And Luca Brecel - absolutely fantastic. It is really great for snooker that someone so young and so talented is breaking through. I know he's 100-1 but why shouldn't he win it at 17. If Boris Becker can win Wimbledon at 17 and Michael Chang win a Grand Slam, the youngest ever at 17yrs 110 days. So why shouldn't Luca win?

I hear that the toilet break issue reared it's ugly head again yesterday with Mark King. It's time now for Barry Hearn to act and bring in the same toilet break rules that apply in tennis. Spectators don't want to see it, broadcasters don't want to see it -it is hugely detrimental to the image of snooker. It is totally unacceptable behaviour. Some people call it gamesmanship, I call it cheating.

I believe that Ronnie vs. Peter could be a really good match. Yes, Ebdon is slow, but he pulls some outstanding shots. That said, we can also simply have a repeat from 2009 when Ebdon, after winning China, lost his opening match at the Crucible. To win 10-0 against Burden is impressive but it is not necessary a sign of Ebdon's return to his very best.Also, like Jamie above, I tip Hendry and Fu to be the only qualifiers to win their matches. This year there really are no players that no one would want to draw (as it was in 2009 with Williams, in 2010 with Dott and in 2011 with Trump). Many of the qualifiers are though opponents who won't give up without a fight but they lack Crucible experience or their matchplay is not quite good enough so they can be beaten. And the experienced ones, like Hendry, Doherty, Ebdon, Perry Fu or Day can struggle a bit.Finally, though this discussion is still ahead, my final thought: Stephen Maguire for a final. He's had a good season, he can look ahead to playing Dott and Higgins whose game he knows inside out and he's much more mentally stable than sometimes (which he proved against Trump and even O'Sullivan in Berlin as well as against O'Sullivan in Beijing). At 31 it's rather too late to win one's first world title (in past 25 years only Ebdon managed to do that). One simply has too many Crucible scars and Maguire surely has many. But still, this year he has a decent chance to be there on the last day.

Potential qualifier wins : Hendry, Fu, Mark Davis, Ebdon (depending on Ronnie's ability to keep it together in the face of Ebdon't "tactics"), Dave Gilbert. Naturally the big talking point is the Ronnie vs Ebdon match. I think the outcome depends on two factors within O'Sullivan's control - his desire to win a fourth world title and his ability to grind it out and keep it together mentally. The signs have been very good this season for Ronnie and his work with his sports psychologist seems to be paying off. The other encouraging sign for O'Sullivan fans is that he has rediscovered his long-potting form which had deserted him for a long time. If he really wants it then I can't see Ebdon beating him. Despite Higgins's poor season I think he will destroy Wenbo. Robertson/Trump/O'Sullivan to win it outright. Should be a classica championship though!

Ronnie will just play his own game, as will Peter. They're both positive atacking players, only difference is their speed. They don't mind playing each other, or any other great player for that matter. It should be a great match.

I don't think Hendry and Fu will get to round 2. My prediction for qualifiers to come through: Brecel, Davis, Higginson, Ebdon and maybe one Chinese qualifier.

It will be interesting how these new Chinese players will be perceived: hopefully they can show some of their characters, like Wenbo has done. I hope they will not just be seen as 'that chinese bloke who beat player X in event X'.

The BBC wanted snooker ringmaster Barry Hearn and star player Judd Trump to travel to their Salford outpost next Monday to conduct the draw for the sport's World Championship, one of the few remaining live sports events left on the Beeb.

But neither could devote the time to travel from Essex to Manchester and back. The draw will instead take place in London and be broadcast on TalkSport.